The New Pyramid of Needs for the Digital Citizen: A Transition towards Smart Human Cities

• Main Authors: José Luis Carrasco-Sáez, Marcelo Careaga Butter, María Graciela Badilla-Quintana
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2017-12-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: ICT skills; smart human cities; digital gap; knowledge society; bi-dimensional identity; needs pyramid
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/12/2258

This article analyzes the cultural transition towards postmodernity or a knowledge society and its impact on the changing needs of cities. This transition is characterized by a growing diversification of the use of technologies in most of the economic, political, educational, social, and cultural activities of different human groups. The concept of smart cities emerges, in which the roles and behaviors of citizens are redefined in physical spaces and in their interactions, as well as the function of institutions and interpersonal relationships. Emerging models of social and cultural behavior are required to analyze and systematize these realities, to understand how to increase effectiveness in action, and to rethink education and new ways of teaching and learning. All these processes are based on phenomena of innovation and management, mediated by technology. We proposed an analysis of the new digital skills of these individuals. The elements that shape the reformulation of roles and reference models, as well as an analysis of the postmodern cultural changes and the formation of a holistic, human-community-technology vision, are based on a new pyramid of training needs in which technologies are placed at the service of people’s development, organizations, society, and culture.